“Thanks…” I cleared my throat, “for the kidnapping.”
Sage grinned, and even Walsh’s lips twitched like he wanted to smile.
“She’s funny. I like her,” Sage told Quan, then she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away from the van. I followed her, suddenly conscious of the wrist cuffs thatno one elsehad. People stared as we passed, but when they did Sage flipped them off, so they quickly turned their heads.
“Big news on campus. The alpha’s son goes to meet with the principal of the magical rejects for charity work and is so taken with a banished wolf that he begs his father to free her and let her back into the city so she can be considered as a potential mate for his mating year. Quite romantic, if you like that shit.”
“No. No. It’s not like that,” I told her, my cheeks reddening. “He just used the mate choosing thing as a way to get me out. He even said so in his letter.”
My cheeks pinked again just thinking about it as we passed another group of people who stared. I tucked my chin into my chest and looked at the ground, wanting to disappear. I didn’t like attention, I liked life better through the lens of my camera.
Sage’s hand rose and jerked my chin up as she stopped walking and leaned into my ear. “Honey, you’re a wolf. Looking down when stared at is just going to get your ass kicked.”
I gulped.
This wassodifferent from Delphi Academy.
I nodded.
“Submissives don’t go to Sterling Hill, and I can smell your dominance, so just let it out, okay?”
Let it out?The one thing I’d shoved deep down inside of me my entire life?
“Got it,” I said, my voice stronger. “Anything else?”
This chick seemed knowledgeable, and since my parents never spoke much of Werewolf City or their time at Sterling Hill because of the pain it brought them, I knew shit-all about this place, or how to survive here. I’d never shifted, never lived in a pack. I grew up with a bunch of stuck-up magical assholes as a solitary wolf girl. Everyone at that school was a grade-A asshole except for Raven. Without her I might not have survived it.
Sage nodded, hissing like a cat at a passing girl, who scurried away, leaving Sage grinning. When she was done, she leaned back in to face me. “Every female at this school wants to marry my cousin Sawyer and be the alpha’s wife, and every single one now knows that he brought you here to join the dating pool.Watchyour back.”
Then she turned and walked off, leaving me speechless and with a lump in my throat.
Join the dating pool? Holy shit, I reallywasinWerewolf Bachelor.
“Come on!” she snapped, and I ran after her, throwing some glares of my own as I passed. Every female here was dressed like a Barbie. Full-on high heels, dresses, slacks and silk shirts. Hair was curled and set in place and make-up was on-point. Not an eyebrow hair out of place. Meanwhile, I looked like I’d rolled out of bed and threw on whatever was closest and smelled generally clean, which wasn’t far from the truth.
I ran after Sage and followed her around a corner to a giant glass dome building markedAdmissions.
She stopped at the door and faced me. “I’m a junior. I live in Lexington Hall. Suite Eleven. Try to get on my floor and I’ll take you under my wing.”
My heart pinched at her generosity and I nodded. “Thanks, girl.” I looked down at her chin out of habit and she inclined her head, smoothing her bright red hair over one shoulder and tipping my chin up to meet her eyes.
“Remember, give ‘em hell. You’re one of us now.”
With that, she turned and walked away, leaving me to stand in front of the double glass doors.
You’re one of us now. She had no way of knowing how much that meant to me.
Okay … here goes nothing.
Reaching out, I pulled the doors open and stepped inside.
Whoa.
The dome ceiling was tinted, but it still let shafts of light in, and behind it was all forest, so everywhere you looked were trees. A short, stocky woman sat behind a computer, tapping on a keyboard. When I stepped up to the counter, she looked up, and then down at my wrists, her hands freezing midair.
“Demi Calloway?”
Shit. How did she know who I was?
